STATESBORO, Ga. – After the Tennessee Tech baseball team
split its first two games of a three-game series at Georgia
Southern, Sunday’s series finale had a little something extra
riding on it. A battle of defending conference champions looking to
start the 2010 season with a bang against a tough non-conference
opponent. And it appeared GSU would run away with a blowout win
after the Eagles jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the second inning.
But Tech battled all the way back, and took a 9-8 lead off a
three-run homer from A.J. Kirby-Jones in the eighth inning that
propelled the Golden Eagles to a 12-9 victory.

Tate McMillan had his third consecutive two-hit game, while Ben
Burgess and Chad Oberacker each had two RBIs in the contest to help
lead the Golden Eagles. Tech got its 12 runs on 14 hits and
committed one error, while GSU scored nine runs on 11 hits with one
error.

Freshman right hander Ryan Hopkins got the first win of his Golden
Eagle career, as he pitched the final 1.2 innings, allowing only
one hit and no runs as the Golden Eagles improve to 2-1 on the
season.

“It was one of the best baseball games that I can remember
wherever I’ve been,” Tech head coach Matt Bragga said.
“It was really fun. We got down early and we just battled and
battled and battled. It was kind of like a prize fight, we took a
big blow early, then we threw the final knockout punch.”

Georgia Southern used eight hits, including a three-run homer, in
the first two innings to jump out to an 8-0 lead. But the Golden
Eagles would remain calm and begin to chip away.

“The mood at that point was what it always is,
‘we’re ok just keep chipping away and get back in the
game,’” Bragga said. “We hung around at 8-4 for a
while and we knew eventually that we’d get an opportunity to
make a run.”

Back-to-back hits from Casanova Donaldson and Chad Hayes to begin
the fifth inning helped lead to RBI doubles from Chad Oberacker and
Ben Burgess as Tech got three runs in the inning to cut GSU’s
lead to 8-3. An RBI single from Oberacker in the sixth inning and a
scoreless seventh made the score 8-4 heading into the eighth
inning.

Hayes led off the eighth with a single, and Zephan Guyear followed
that with a double. After a throwing error on the play Guyear ended
up on third base while Hayes scored from first. Oberacker then
walked, and a wild pitch allowed him to advance to second, while
Guyear scored from third to cut the lead to 8-6. A walk to Seth
Edwards put two runners on for Kirby-Jones, who blasted his first
home run of the season, a three-run shot, to complete the comeback
and give Tech a 9-8 lead.

“That was an amazing at bat,” Bragga said. “They
have some really good arms on their pitching staff, and the guy
threw six huge breaking balls in a row. A.J. just kept fighting and
fighting until he got the pitch he wanted and he just hammered
it.”

But Tech’s work wasn’t done. Georgia Southern would
keep the pressure on with a run in the bottom half of the inning to
send the game to the ninth deadlocked at 9-9. After Donaldson
struck out and Hayes grounded to first to start the ninth, Tech
would piece together a game-winning two-out rally. Guyear kicked
things off with a two-out double down the right field line. After
Oberacker was intentionally walked Edwards came through with an RBI
single, and would advance to second on the throw home, putting
runners on second and third with a 10-9 lead. Kirby-Jones was then
intentionally walked for the third consecutive day to load the
bases for Burgess, who would capitalize with a two-RBI single to
give Tech a 12-9 lead.

“It’s really neat because they intentionally walked
A.J. three times this weekend and twice Ben came up with huge
hits,” Bragga said. “First it was a single that scored
three runs, and then today it was basically the same thing. Ben is
a really good hitter and he just does what he does.”

Nick Price pitched three innings in relief without giving up a
hit, before Oberacker came in to throw 2.1 innings, allowing just
one run.

“Nick Price came in and did a great job for three innings,
and Oberacker did too. And Hopkins did a great job to finish it.
Those three guys did a tremendous job out of the pen for
us.”

The Eagles would threaten with a one-out double in the bottom of
the ninth, but Hopkins recorded a strikeout and forced a popup to
end the game.

Tech will come home for its 2010 home opener against Cleveland
State on Feb. 26 in the first game of a three game series. The
teams will play at 3 p.m. on Feb. 26, 2 p.m. on Feb. 27 and 1 p.m.
on Feb. 28. Admission to all Tech home baseball games is free.